Marcus Tullius Cicero - M. Tullii Ciceronis Opera - 1768

Parisian edition edited by the philologist Jean‑Nicolas Lallemand (1715‑1793) in 14 volumes in octavo, preceded in volume I by an engraved frontispiece, which offers enthusiasts a nearly complete corpus: political speeches (Catilinarians, Verrines, Philippics), philosophical treatises (De Officiis, Tusculans, De Finibus, De Natura Deorum), political and rhetorical dialogues (De Re Publica, De Legibus, De Oratore, Brutus, Orator), not to mention the correspondence, notably the Letters to Atticus and to his brother Quintus. Lallemand, following the tradition of so‑called “Elzevirian” editions, provides a careful recension, with division into volumes by genres, notes on variants and an apparatus facilitating scholarly or school use, which makes this series a prized working tool in Jesuit colleges and in the libraries of humanists.

14 volumes in-8vo, xvi, 552 pp.; 504 pp.; 522 pp., [1] f.; 568 pp., 526 pp., 537 pp.; 516 pp.; 482 pp.; 557 pp., [3] pp.; 599 pp.; 559 pp.; 585 pp.; 576 pp.; 532 pp., tawny marbled calfskin, smooth decorated spine, framed with a triple gold filet on the boards, gilded edges and blue marbled endpapers (period binding).

The set is in average condition: the main defect lies in the leather drying out and flaking, the spine superficially split, missing title or volume labels, worn corners, headbands and tailbands, small pieces of leather missing here and there, text underlining on a few pages across the three volumes, and other minor defects. This is a working copy that would not suit a discerning bibliophile.

¶ Marcus Tullius Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106–43 B.C.) is the great figure of eloquence and political thought at the end of the Roman Republic, a direct witness to the convulsions that lead from Sulla to Caesar, and then to the second triumvirate. A lawyer, consul in 63, theorist of the res publica, he embodies for the humanists and then for the entire eighteenth century the model of the orator, the moralist, and the man of letters, so well that the complete edition of his works remains a pillar in the libraries of scholars, colleges, and jurists.